


We Make ‘Em Say WOW!

by Rynnsama



Series: Alex Saga [2]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alex & Carrie BFFs, Family Drama, Fluff, Gen, Healing, Kinda fix it fic, M/M, Neglect, Original Character(s), all the love for alex, bad parenting choices, self indulgent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:14:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 21,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26909458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rynnsama/pseuds/Rynnsama
Summary: After accidentally becoming visible to Carrie, Alex embarks on a new friendship that has the potential to help right some of the wrongs of the past.
Relationships: Alex & Carrie Wilson, Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Series: Alex Saga [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1992868
Comments: 236
Kudos: 472





	1. Chapter 1

“So where are going?” Willie asked as he took in the Malibu mansion in front of them.

“You like yelling in museums and skating in Justin Beiber’s pool,” Alex shrugged with a smile, “this is what I like to do to chill.”

Alex reached out for the other to take his hand and even though Willie gave him a look he obliged, their fingers entwining as he followed the blonde.

It was still a bit of a novelty being able to move around as a ghost and not having to obey the laws of physics. It didn’t take long before they appeared in a room that looked like a small version of a dance studio. On the other side of the room was a girl in workout clothes, sipping from some water as she appeared to be going over some notes.

“Who’s she?”

“Her name is Carrie, she’s kind of Julie’s arch enemy,” Alex explained. “She also happens to be the daughter of that guy we were wanting to get back at.”

“Oh I see,” Willie couldn’t help but smirk, “Mess with the daughter and you kill two birds with one stone.”

Alex opened his mouth to speak but paused for a moment. “No, it’s not like that at all. Just watch, this is my way to just let everything out. You know, to relax a little.”

Willie just shrugged as he leaned back against the wall. Carrie grabbed her phone, starting music on her phone that played through the Bluetooth speakers set up around the room.

_ Showtime _ , Alex smiled to himself. Ever since the performance at “Eats and Beats” where he had decided to crash Dirty Candy’s performance he had investigated Carrie a little further. He had to admit, even if she was the competition, she had a good sound and damn did he love her style and choreography. 

Finding out about her practice studio at home he had visited on more than one occasion to rehearse with her and at this point he had not only memorized the choreo for “All Eyes On Me” but even added his own flair to it as well.

Carrie started to dance to the song and Alex joined in the way he usually did, making sure to throw a wink at Willie as he did. So maybe he  _ was _ showing off a little bit more than usual but it wasn’t every day that you had an incredibly cute ghost checking you out like that. Things were going really well between the two of them, especially since Julie had lifted Caleb’s curse from him, Reggie and Luke. He had hated the way that Willie had carried guilt about that and now that it was dealt with, he had nothing left to feel guilty about. All that was left was to help Willie get out of Caleb’s clutches as well.

Maybe it was the thrill of having Willie’s full attention but Alex suddenly had the urge to start singing along with the song as he danced.

“ _ Some might say I sound conceited, _ ” Alex belted out along with the music and he didn’t notice at first the way that Carrie started to look around the room, he was too focused on the boy in front of him.

“ _ They don’t get the shine that I get,” _ as Alex continued Carrie stopped dancing, she began to search the room more frantically.

“ _ Some get jealous they can’t help it, They wish they were me! _ ” As he hit the note of the last word he could swear Carrie locked eyes with him. 

Her eyes widened in horror before she let out a scream, bolting from the studio. The music continued as she had run off without grabbing her phone but at that moment the last thing on Alex’s mind was to continue his performance.

“Did she just...” He looked over to Willie dumbfounded.

“See you?” He finished Alex’s sentence for him.

The two of them stood there in silence as the song played out, the room falling quiet as the final notes of the song faded away.

“There’s no way…” 

He was always in the Molina’s space and he knew that Carlos and Ray had never seen any of them and that was even with Reggie trying profusely. Maybe Carlos had figured out about them but that was totally different than  _ actually _ being able to see him outside of performing with Julie.

“Wait, you said that people could see you when you played music with Julie right?” Willie finally asked.

“Yeah, but I wasn’t playing and I wasn’t with Julie. How is that even possible?” Alex could feel a knot in his stomach.

“You were singing,” Willie couldn’t help but point out. “Maybe that had something to do with it?”

Alex couldn’t help but sigh, “Well, whatever happened I won’t be coming back for dance practice again any time soon.”

“Well, if you need some stress relief you can always come and scream in museums with me,” Willie smiled at him as he offered out his hand to the other.

Alex couldn’t help himself from smiling as he took his hand, “Yeah, I’ll probably take you up on that offer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! This is my first time writing for this fandom. Please comment and let me know what you think! Still deciding if I should continue this or not so let me know if you want more!


	2. Chapter 2

Carrie Wilson did not appreciate others getting the better of her. The prank in her studio had freaked her out at first but as she took time to think about it rationally she had finally come to the conclusion about what had happened.

“Cute little stunt last night Molina,” her voice was shrill and annoyed as she came to a stop beside Julie’s locker.

There may have been a moment during Julie’s performance at the Orpheum that Carrie had possibly felt like reconciliation between her and her former friend might be possible but if Julie wanted to play tricks on her then that was out of the question.

“Last night? I thought you said you were busy studying,” Flynn, Julie’s current best friend budged into their conversation.

“I _was_ studying last night,” Julie said as she closed her locker and turned towards Carrie. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“Likely story,” Carrie scoffed. “How long have you been planning this? I’ve been trying to figure out when exactly you had time to sneak one of your little hologram machines into my studio.”

Her eyes narrowed as she looked between Julie and Flynn.

“It was that time you showed up at my house wasn’t it? I knew there was something suspicious when you just came by to tell me about your little concert at the school dance, a performance that you choked by the way,” Carrie smirked, enjoying the small digs she was able to take at the other.

“What?” Julie was looking at her confused.

“And then you just offering to go and get a towel to clean up that water that you _spilled_ ,” she used her fingers to make air quotes around the last word. 

"You were gone for a rather long time. Well haha, your joke was _hilarious_ ,” Carrie rolled her eyes as she spoke. “The voice at first was a little confusing but having that guy just show up in my rehearsal space? Yeah, I obviously _loved_ that.”

“Yup, that was us!” Flynn’s laugh seemed rather forced as she stepped closer, maneuvering her body so that it was more between her and Julie. “Too bad we didn’t hide a camera too, I would have loved to see your face. But I have to ask, how did you know it was us?”

Carrie’s eyes narrowed, annoyed at how the girl came to Julie’s aid. She kept telling herself that Flynn was annoying but really her hatred of the girl boiled down to jealousy of her relationship with Julie. Sure, she had the members of Dirty Candy, but they really were more just glorified, backup dancers. And for a time she thought she had Nick in her corner backing her up but he’d left her too. Was it wrong for her to want someone that would stand up for her?

“It took me a minute but then I realized the guy was obviously one of your band members,” Carrie explained. She had recognized the boy but it wasn’t until going back to watch Julie’s YouTube video to confirm that it was in fact the same guy. The blonde hair was unmistakable.

Julie was still looking perplexed and it was as if she had lost the ability to speak. Really Carrie had expected more gloating on her part. Roles reversed, Carrie wouldn’t have hesitated to rub the prank in the girl’s face.

“Well yeah, it was obviously us and of course you would recognize him, duh,” Flynn jokingly knocked herself on the head with another strained chuckle. “You caught us. We’d love to talk more about this but we’ve got class so got to go! Come on Julie, we’re going.”

She watched with a glare as the girl took Julie’s arm, leading her away.

\--

Once it seemed like they were out of earshot Flynn stopped and turned to Julie a look of utter shock and disbelief crossing her face.

“What the hell was that?” She motioned back to where they had been talking with Carrie, “I thought only you could see the guys and they were only visible to others when playing with you.”

Julie shrugged, she had no idea what was going on. “But what were any of them doing at Carrie’s house?”

Flynn just shot her a look, “You seem to forget the whole debacle between them and Trevor Wilson or as they call him _Bobby_.”

Julie shook her head, “No, they said they were giving that up. That our music now was what mattered and we needed to look forward and not to the past.”

Flynn just shrugged, “Well whatever reason they were there, Carrie saw one of them. Do you think when you lifted Caleb’s curse you gave them like more ghost powers or something?”

“They don’t have _ghost powers_ ,” Julie just rolled her eyes.

“Oh really? I’d say summoning instruments and appearing on stage as the most epic back up band would constitute ghost powers,” Flynn smirked.

“Whatever,” Julie chuckled, “I just hate that we still have two classes left in the day. I promised my dad I’d put school first but I really want to know what’s going on.”

Flynn placed her hand on her friend's shoulder giving her a half hug, “A couple more hours before answers isn’t going to change anything. What’s done is done.”

Julie just let out a sigh, “You’re right. Come on, let’s get to class.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who took the time to read and leave a comment on my first chapter. I really enjoyed working on this and having such a positive reception on it definitely motivated me to keep going! I hope you continue to enjoy what I've written and I look forward to seeing where this whole thing goes.
> 
> Once again, be sure to comment! Feedback is always appreciated!


	3. Chapter 3

“I thought we had agreed to leave the past in the past,” Julie called out as she entered the garage that evening.

Luke, Reggie and Alex were lounging on the couch together and looked up at her at the sound of her voice.

“What do you mean?” Luke gave her a confused look.

Hands on her hips she gave them all the once over, wondering just which one of them had been the offending party.

“The trick you played on Carrie, she came after me at school thinking I had something to do with it. I’m not even sure how you were able to make yourself visible to her either! If this is some plot to get back at Trevor about the songs he stole I thought we had agreed to move on from that.”

As she finished talking Luke turned to look at Reggie and she followed his gaze.

“What?” Reggie asked as he noticed that the focus of the conversation had been drawn to him, “Why are you looking at me?”

“This does kinda seem like your thing, or are you forgetting about the blinds and the blanket?” Luke raised an eyebrow.

Reggie opened his mouth to defend himself but didn’t have a chance to as Alex timidly raised his hand from his spot on the left side of the couch.

“It was me,” he said quietly.

It was now his turn to have everyone’s attention focused on him and Alex looked uncomfortable.

“Why were you playing a trick on Carrie?” Luke gave him a perplexed look.

“It wasn’t exactly a trick,” Alex exhaled slowly as he tried to figure out how to tell his bandmates about the incident.

“Well, Carrie seemed to think it was,” Julie crossed her arms as she waited for his explanation.

“I never thought she’d be able to see me,” Alex looked sincere as he spoke. “Look you all know how much fun I’ve had with her music so I’ve started hanging out at her place. It’s been fun working on her choreography and such, you know things I don’t get to do here because I’m always stuck behind the drums. Not complaining, by the way, it’s just a fact. Anyway last night I took Willie with me because I wanted to show off a little.”

“Yeah you did,” Reggie gave him a knowing nod which only caused Alex to flush.

“It’s was like any other time, she couldn’t see me and was none the wiser. But with Willie there, I couldn’t help myself from singing along okay? And that’s when things got a little… awkward.”

“Why didn’t you tell us what happened?” Luke took Alex’s hand in his own as he gave his friend a worried expression.

“Yeah, a heads up before Carrie accosted me in the hallway would have been nice,” Julie was trying to be annoyed but found herself more concerned for Alex. Obviously, the experience had been hard for him too.

“Wait, someone saw you when you  _ weren’t  _ playing with us? I’m not sure if I should be jealous or not,” Reggie was trying to put it all together. “But wait, Ray doesn’t seem me when I’m singing with him in the kitchen?”

“Look, I don’t know what happened!” Alex’s anxiety was getting the better of him. He didn’t have the answers they were looking for and it was stressing him out. “It freaked me out too. I never meant to scare her, she wasn’t supposed to be able to see me.”

“What did Willie think?” Luke was trying his best to change the topic at least a little bit.

“About me materializing in front of Carrie?” Alex threw him a confused look.

“No, about your little performance,” Luke raised his eyebrows as he spoke with a wide grin.

“I don’t know, having Carrie run screaming out of the room kinda killed the mood,” He sighed. “I know you don’t understand but like, that was a fun escape for me and now I’m too scared to go back.”

“You could always dance to the radio out here,” Reggie suggested.

Alex threw him a half-smile knowing that he was just trying to cheer him up, “Yeah, maybe.”

It was more than just the dancing though, he had genuinely enjoyed Carrie’s company even if she had never known he was there. Maybe she came off a little bitchy in public but seeing her on her own Alex had come to understand that she put just as much time, effort and love into her music as they did. Was she really that different from the rest of them? Besides, it wasn’t her fault that her dad stole their music, got rich and spoiled her. Really her bad attitude was on Bobby.

“Hey, Julie?” He asked looking up at her nervously, “Would you mind doing a favour for me?”

She nodded, “What’s that?”

“Could you apologize to Carrie for me? I don’t know, make up some sort of excuse or something. I just want her to know that I didn’t mean to scare her like that.”

“Of course I can. I’m not sure how, but for you, I’ll try,” she gave him a smile. It was more than obvious that the incident had affected him just as much.

“Well, now that we’re all here how about we practice?” Luke stood up quickly and turned to face the other two boys, extending his hands to them to help them up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you thank you so much to everyone reading! I really appreciate all of your feedback so keep it coming! Hopefully posting more soon!


	4. Chapter 4

Approaching Carrie proved to be even more difficult than Julie had first thought. They ran in different social circles now and crossing them wasn't easy. A part of her had thought about just giving up but she then realized that it wouldn't be very easy to face Alex when she got home.

Eventually, she found herself waiting beside the other girl's locker at the end of the day.

"Are you lost or something?" Carrie gave her a look as she made a shooing motion at her, "You're in my way."

"I actually wanted to talk to you," Julie was trying to maintain her cool and be polite.

Carrie just sighed as she opened her locker, "Just be quick about it. I have a spa appointment booked in an hour."

Julie tried not to roll her eyes, "Look, I just wanted to tell you that I talked to Alex, he's one of the holograms…"

"Mhmm," Carrie gave a bored hum as she exchanged the books between her locker and her bag.

"Anyway he was the one who played that trick on you and he just wanted me to say he was sorry if it upset you," Julie wondered if Carrie was even hearing a word she said.

Alex's apology was obviously wasted on her.

Closing her locker Carrie turned towards Julie and studied her silently for a moment. 

"Obviously a stunt like that would upset someone, what was he expecting?"

Julie tried to think fast, "Well I mean Alex really likes your routines, he thought it would be more of a compliment than anything."

It wasn't a complete lie. She had no idea what went on in Alex's head but she had seen the smile on his face the night he danced on stage with Dirty Candy.

"He does?" Carrie's voice sounded suspicious. 

"He does! Anyway, he wanted me to let you know he was sorry and I have so I'm gonna go now," Julie had fulfilled her promise. There was no reason to continue to drag out this awkward encounter. 

"Wait, why couldn't he just apologize himself?" Carrie asked with a raised brow.

"Well he doesn't live here so how could he?" Julie laughed nervously, "The hologram band is in Sweden so he'd have a hard time apologizing."

Carrie didn't look like she was buying that answer, "And the cute drummer doesn't have an insta or email or anything? I mean obviously, he communicates with you."

_ Because I can see dead people and you can't,  _ Julie thought to herself.

"Of course he does," she lied through her teeth, "he just doesn't know your contact info."

Carrie scoffed, "Just google Dirty Candy or my name and all my socials come up. Beauty but no brains huh? Such a shame because he's definitely my type."

"Well, you're definitely not his," Julie muttered under her breath but Carrie still heard it anyway. 

"I'm  _ everyone's _ type," she flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Your feeble apology is not accepted. Tell him he can do it himself."

With that, Carrie turned on her heel and walked away leaving Julie staring after her slack-jawed. 

\--

“So did you ever figure out what happened the other night?”

Alex had spent the afternoon with Willie, it was one of his favourite ways to spend his time. They ranked in order from practicing and hanging out with his band, spending time with Willie and strangely enough third on the list was spending time with Carrie. 

He could totally understand why Julie and Flynn felt the way they did about Carrie, she was a little extreme and she could dial back the bitchiness a bit but she was a different person when she was alone and thought no one was looking.

“Alex?”

He blinked, realizing he had been lost in thought and had ignored Willie’s question altogether.

“No, still no idea what happened. We all talked about it and literally, nothing helpful came up. It might have just been a fluke right?”

Willie just shrugged, “I don’t know man, maybe. You doing alright though? You seemed a little tense all day.”

The other reached out timidly, taking his hand. They had never talked about the hug they had shared outside the Orpheum the day Willie had helped them set up the show. To be honest, Alex had thought it was the last time he was ever going to see him and so he had just acted on impulse. Luckily for him, Willie had reciprocated and they had shared a moment.

But then they hadn’t crossed over, and he was still here. And they had never talked about the hug, nor attempted another since. He was still feeling unsure about his relationship with Willie. It was obvious that he liked him, his blunder at the Hollywood Ghost Club with Caleb was more than enough evidence, but he was struggling to read the signs that Willie was giving him. He attributed that to the fact that he had  _ died _ before ever really getting to experience what dating and a relationship was like. He had barely had enough time to come out to his friends, which went well, and family, which went not so well. His only experience of a boyfriend was Luke and that didn’t count because it had only been a few weeks.

It was true that Luke had chemistry with just about anyone and when he had come out he and Luke had decided to see if there was actual  _ chemistry _ chemistry there or if it was all just on stage. In the end, they realized that they were better off as friends but he had always appreciated Luke for giving him a chance.

“You know me,” Alex laughed nervously, “Just one great big ball of anxiety. Mostly I’m just worried about Carrie, Julie had mentioned that I really freaked her out. Also, I just miss dancing but I don’t really feel like I can go back. I don’t know how I appeared to her in the first place so I can’t guarantee that it won’t happen again.”

“Well,” Willie pulled on his hand as he led him down the beach a little. “It’s not exactly a dance studio but…”

There was a group on the beach with some Bluetooth speakers that were listening to top 40 music.

“I’ll dance with you here if you like?” Willie had that playful glint in his eyes, the one that made Alex feel weak in the knees.

Alex desperately wanted to ask if they were boyfriends, this was such a boyfriend thing to do, wasn’t it? He refrained though, not wanting to ruin the moment. So maybe they hadn’t defined their relationship, that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy it wherever it led.

“Yeah sure, but only because you asked,” he grinned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decided to go with the idea of Luke and Alex being ex's, I know there are a few people in the fandom that subscribe to that thinking. I've really enjoyed working on this and want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for all of the feedback and love I've been getting on this fic! It's been really inspiring me to keep going! I'm glad you're all enjoying this as much as I am.
> 
> As always comments are GREATLY appreciated! Let me know what you like! (or you can even tell me what you don't like too lol)


	5. Chapter 5

Julie was feeling a little bad as she headed out to the garage that evening. She knew Alex would be disappointed when she told him about her exchange with Carrie earlier. She couldn’t help but wonder if maybe she had approached it differently than maybe it would have gone better. The fact of the matter was though that Carrie usually wanted to be contrary in matters concerning her.

“Julie!”

Luke practically pounced on her excitedly as she opened the doors to the garage.

“Julie we were able to figure out the chorus to that new song we’re working on!”

She grinned, nothing like Luke to brighten her day.

“Of course I do!” Julie made her way behind the keyboard, taking her usual seat as she listened to Luke and Reggie play. Luke explained how the lyrics fit into the music.

“It sounds amazing!” Julie was constantly in awe of Luke’s talent.

“I know, right?” Reggie was beaming as he admired his best friend.

“Where’s Alex?” Julie couldn’t help but notice their missing band member.

Luke shrugged with a smile, “He likes to spend his afternoons with Willy, I’m sure he’ll be back soon.”

Julie shook her head with a laugh, “I’ll never understand this ghost thing. It’s strange to think that you almost have lives even though you’re dead.”

“Well, we're just trying to understand it ourselves," Reggie teased. 

It was almost as if on queue that Alex poofed back into the garage.

"Good date?" 

Luke nudged him playfully which only made Alex blush.

"It wasn't a _date_ , but yeah it was really good," Alex replied

Julie cleared her throat which drew the boys’ attention to her, "I tried to talk to Carrie today. She wasn't really impressed with a third party apology and says she wants one from you yourself."

She bit her lip as silence fell over the room.

"But that's not possible," Alex finally said as he looked to the others for help. "I mean the only way I am for sure viable is playing with you, Julie. So unless we put on an apology concert for Carrie I don't know what I can do."

"You know, the concert idea isn't half bad," Reggie interjected but Alex just rolled his eyes at him.

"I have an idea," Julie said quietly which once more drew all the attention to her. 

"Look, we know you can use a computer, Reggie has already proven that by using Carlos' laptop. Maybe you could use a phone, we could set up an Instagram account for you or something like that and you could just message her."

Alex's eyes lit up, "Do you really think that something like that would work?"

“It might, though I mean it would be hard to make it look like a legitimate account. I’m not sure how we’re going to get pictures to update your profile with and you wouldn’t have any friends, that would look rather suspicious…” She was starting to see all the flaws in her plan all at once.

Reggie’s hand shot up in the air like that of an eager child, “If Alex gets an Instagram, I want one whatever it is!”

“What exactly is an Instagram?” 

Julie couldn’t help but smile at Luke’s question. She forgot that the boys weren’t quite up to date on all of the modern conveniences.

“There are these things called apps, applications, that you can use on the internet to talk to your friends. You download them to your phone,” She explained. “Some of them are just for texting messages, others are for messaging and pictures, some are for videos.”

“Like YouTube!” Reggie grinned, “Where we’re trending!”

“Why wouldn’t you just call your friends on the phone? I mean isn’t that why you have a phone?” Luke gave her a look.

“No one calls anymore, or at least we rarely do. Everyone just texts these days,” she just shrugged, “Do you wanna try it at least?”

Alex looked nervously between Luke and Reggie before locking eyes with her. “Sure, I guess.”

Unlocking her phone she held it out to him. Gingerly he took it and held it in his hands. She was impressed by the progress the boys had been making. When she first met them they had barely been able to touch any physical objects at all.

“Try to click on an app,” she encouraged him.

Taking a deep breath he pressed down on the screen with his finger and the display changed on the screen of the device.

“Is that supposed to happen?” He looked up with worry written across his features.

She nodded, “Yes, that’s my TikTok, you make videos with this one.”

Alex handed back her phone, “So does this mean we’re going to make an account for me?”

Julie nodded, “Yes, but not on my phone. My dad just upgraded his phone recently so I’ll see if I can find his old one. As long as it’s attached to the WiFi you’ll still be able to use the apps even if it’s not on a network.”

Alex’s head circled as though he was trying to decide if he was trying to nod or shake his head, “I have no idea what that means, but okay.”

“Wait am I getting an account too?” Reggie looked between them all, “I vote I get one.”

Julie just shrugged, “Might be worthwhile to make us look like a legitimate bad if you all had an account. Otherwise, people might not think you were real.”

It had recently come to light that Carlos had discovered their secret. Maybe it would be worth it to try to make them seem more real. Might make things easier in the long run.

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trying something new with the screenshot thing. Anyway, hope you're all still enjoying the fic! I've been loving all of the comments and feedback, you're all so awesome! Keep it coming <3


	6. Chapter 6

Carrie stared at the message request on her Instagram. Honestly, she wasn’t sure what she had expected. She was surprised, that was for sure. When she and Julie had parted ways at school she had maybe thought something would come of it, but then two days past and nothing happened. She decided that the boy was obviously not that sorry at all and chalked it up to one more thing in the world that was against her. Until she had woken up to this.

Hadn’t Julie said they lived in another country? Maybe with time zones and such, it had just taken him longer to message her.

She tapped on his profile and was shocked to see how dead it was. There were next to no pictures on it, just a couple from Julie’s garage show and then again from the show that Orpheum. Also, the boy had very few followers which she found strange seeing as their YouTube channel was blowing up. She shrugged though, that was a band account and this was his personal one. Maybe they hadn’t given out their personal profiles yet. She soon figured out that his followers consisted of his fellow bandmates and Flynn. Did he not have any other friends or something? Everything seemed oddly suspicious.

“Alex…” She said his name aloud to herself.

As she studied the pictures she couldn’t help smiling, he was rather cute. A little bit like Nick in that he had similar hair and eye colours but he also just seemed more mature than Nick or any of the other guys at school. Sophisticated even. And his style was kind of fun.

“Carrie?” She could hear her father call from the main level. With a sigh, she locked her phone and went downstairs.

He’d probably had an early morning therapy appointment _again_ , it seemed like her father was barely ever home lately, though when she really thought about it he’d rarely been around for most of her life.

When she was little he was always on tour on in the recording studio but at least she’d had her mom with her then. As his music slowed down he seemed to be around more and that’s when the fighting had begun between her parents. They had always tried to hide it so she never knew exactly what they had been arguing about just that they were fighting. 

Which was why when her mom had left it hadn’t come as a great shock. What was shocking though was that she had left Carrie behind. Left her with the father she barely knew because he’d rarely been around while she was growing up.

That’s when the therapy and spiritual retreats had started. Though now she was old enough to be left at home while he was at appointments or he’d arrange something for her on weekends he was away.

She knew her dad loved her, he did his best with what he had which was a lot of money. She wanted for nothing except for the love and connection of a parent who was _there._ Which was maybe why Dirty Candy was so important to her. Music seemed to be one of the only things her father cared about. If she made it in the music industry maybe her dad would finally give her the love and attention that she was craving.

“I brought home some breakfast, you feeling hungry?” He smiled up at her as she reached the landing on the main floor.

“It’s almost noon,” she replied flatly.

“Well, brunch then,” he held up a container of waffles. “I got them at your favourite place.”

A smile pulled at the corner of her lips, at least he had remembered that. “Sure,” she nodded as she joined him in the kitchen. 

They had opted for stools at the counter instead of moving to the full dining table and ate out of the to-go packaging instead of getting real dishes. She found herself smiling and laughing as they talked. It was these small moments with her father that she lived for though they were few and far between.

“So how much do you know about this band that Julie is playing with?” He finally asked as they were packing up the garbage.

Carrie couldn’t help but be annoyed. Why was he asking after Julie’s band and not _hers_?

She shrugged indifferently, “It’s some hologram band or something. I think she said they were in Sweden?”

“Sweden?” He gave her a doubtful look.

Carrie just rolled her eyes, “I don’t know and I don’t care. All I know is that it’s totally a gimmick she’s using to try and get attention.”

“Do you know any of their names?” He continued to probe her for information.

“No, I don’t…” she started but then she remembered the message that she had received earlier, “Actually one is named Alex. The drummer.”

Her dad’s face lost all colour. She couldn’t understand it at all. What was with him and Julie’s band?

“Baby, I’m gonna go meditate,” He reached out and kissed her forehead before turning towards the stairs.

Carrie just sighed. For a moment she had thought that maybe she might have the chance to spend the day with her dad. Maybe she could have taken him down to her studio and showed him the new song she was working on. But he didn’t care about her music, not really. Sure he paid for everything but he was rarely there to support her when she performed. 

“I’m gonna go meditate,” she repeated in a mocking tone once he was out of earshot before rolling her eyes once more and moving towards the living room. Flopping down on the couch she pulled out her phone again and opened up Alex’s message to read it once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge thank you to everyone who continues to read! Your feedback always makes my day and helps encourage me to keep writing! Hopefully, you enjoyed this next chapter! <3


	7. Chapter 7

“So Julie helped me set up this thing, it’s called Instagram,” Alex explained as he walked down the boardwalk with Willie.

“Oh yeah, I had one of those when I was a lifer,” Willie grinned, “why are you getting one now?”

“Well, it’s not like I can call Carrie up on the phone to apologize. You can text messages on the app so it’s how I’m able to communicate with her,” Alex blushed a little before turning to give Willie a look, “You had one? What was your name?”

The other couldn’t help a chuckle, “Skater Will. No space between the words and skater was spelt like s-k-with the number 8-r. Super original, I know.”

Alex made a mental note of the username. He didn’t know how the accounts worked and all that but maybe Willie’s would still be around. It wouldn’t hurt to let to know a little bit more about the other, would it?

“So what’s up with you and this Carrie girl?”

The question caught him off guard but he couldn’t help but notice a hint of jealousy in the other’s voice.

He shrugged a little, “I don’t know. I just feel like I have a connection with her, you know?”

“You got a crush on a lifer?” Willie raised an eyebrow at him.

Alex blushed a little, “No, I do have a crush but not on her.”

“Yeah?”

Alex bit his lip as he fidgeted. Finally, he gave a small nod, “Yeah.”

They shared a look before Willie reached out, taking his hand and they both smiled. Alex felt elated but there was still that nagging voice in the back of his head telling him he was reading the situation wrong.

“Look are we dating or something?” The words came tumbling out of his mouth before he could really form a cohesive sentence, “Because I just, I can’t tell and it’s not a big deal either way but I guess I just, I just want to know.”

His outburst caused Willie to start laughing which only made him feel like a moron. He tried to pull his hand away but the other held strong, pulling him closer.

“As much as two dead guys can be boyfriends, yeah I think we are,” Willie said softly as their eyes met.

Alex felt a wash of relief, “Oh, okay good.” 

It seemed like the right moment to try for a kiss but he hesitated and Willie pulled away.

“I need to get going, you know can’t be missing for too long,” Willie explained as he grabbed his skateboard and helmet.

Alex frowned, as much as he tried to ignore it, Willie was still under the control of Caleb. If he really wanted to help his boyfriend, he loved that word, he would have to figure out how to lift the curse from him.

“Can I see you again soon?” He asked almost too eagerly.

Reaching out Willie caressed his cheek, “Of course, before you know it.”

\--

“So did you message Carrie?”

Alex looked up to see Luke standing above him. He nodded as Luke sat down beside him in the loft overlooking the rest of the garage.

“Did she get back to you?”

“Yeah, Julie told her that I liked her music and I think that helped, she does have a bit of an ego,” Alex shrugged.

“So how come you’re looking so down?” Luke asked, his hand reaching out to rest on Alex’s leg.

“I was with Willie and I was just reminded that he’s still completely under Caleb’s control. Isn’t there something we can do? I mean Julie helped us and everything… I just can’t figure out how to break the curse for him,” he explained with a sigh.

“How are things going between you two?” Luke couldn’t help the smile pulling at his lips.

Alex blushed as he began to smile a bit himself. “We’re uh,” he hesitated as he looked away, “we’re going out.”

Luke wrapped his arms around him in a giant hug, “I’m so happy for you man! I gotta say I’m not shocked though, it was only a matter of time for the two of you.”

“Shh, it’s not true,” Alex hated attention on him, especially when it came to this. 

He always felt like he was never good enough and he tried to hide his shine. Even though he ached to be noticed and wanted he also hated being in the limelight. 

“Look, I know you’re worried about Willie, you should be. But Alex, you’ve got to enjoy the good things too man. You’re dating the ghost of your dreams, you got Carrie to forgive you and you’re in a really rockin’ band,” Luke rubbed his back reassuringly.

Luke was right, he did have a lot going for him in the afterlife, especially if he couldn’t figure out what his unfinished business was and ended up spending an eternity like this.

“Is it weird that I want to keep talking to Carrie?” He finally asked.

Luke just shrugged, “I don’t know. Really I mean why not? We went through all of that work to set up those accounts and stuff that you might as well use it.”

The mention of an Instagram account reminded him that Willie had told him of his account he’d had while he was alive. That meant that he hadn’t been dead for too long, he at least had been around for social media.

“Where is the phone Julie gave us?”

Without waiting for the answer he transported himself to the main floor of the garage with a poof, locating the old cellphone resting on the baby grand. Reaching out he tried to grab it, missing it the first time before steadying himself and trying a second time. He smiled as he unlocked the phone and opened the app and began to type in Willie’s username.

“S-k-8-r-w-i-l-l,” he muttered as he typed it in.

Reggie came up beside him, “What’cha doing?”

Startled Alex quickly locked the phone screen, “Nothing!”

“Wasn’t that Willie?” Reggie asked, reaching for the phone but Alex batted him away.

Okay, so maybe Reggie had seen the screen before he was able to hide it. There was no use hiding it, there were very few secrets between the three boys.

“I found out that Willie had one of those Instagram accounts before he died,” Alex explained unlocking the phone once again. 

“They’re boyfriends now,” Luke gave a nod to Reggie as he joined them.

Reggie gave him an impressed look, “Good work Alex! Dead man has game.”

Alex shot him an unimpressed glance before rolling his eyes deciding not to engage.

“I just wanted to see if his account was still around and it looks like it is,” Alex placed the phone on the piano in view of everyone.

“Some pretty impressive pics,” Luke commented before he turned to grab his guitar and flop onto the couch, starting to pluck out some melodies quietly.

“So the whole point of this thing is to just show off to other people?” Reggie asked as he scrolled through all of Willie’s pictures.

“That seems to be the bulk of it,” Alex nodded.

He couldn’t help but wonder what it would have been like to grow up with all of this technology. Would he have a popular profile? Maybe if Sunset Curve had made it. Other than that his life was not that noteworthy.

“You know, it’s crazy. When we died the internet was barely a thing. Like who had the internet at their house? No one, that’s who. And now you can get imaginary signals out in garages,” Alex finally said aloud.

“Yeah, it’s kind of crazy how much things have changed in the last 25 years,” Reggie agreed as he handed the phone back to his friend.

“The whole music streaming thing is super lame though. Who wants to just have music on their phone? I mean nothing compares to the sound of vinyl. I wonder what happened to my collection of albums…” Luke paused playing as he thought about it.

“You never looked for it at your parent’s house?” Reggie couldn’t help but ask which only caused Alex to glare at him.

A sad look crossed Luke’s face, “I haven’t gone into my old room. I can’t bring myself to do it. I’m not sure what would be worse, if they changed things or if they kept it exactly the same.”

“Hey man, you don’t ever have to go in there if you don’t want to, okay?” Alex did his best to comfort his friend.

Luke nodded. Standing he put his guitar back on its stand. 

“I’m gonna go see if Julie is done her homework,” Luke informed them before disappearing.

“Why’d you have to bring that up?” Alex whacked Reggie for his insensitivity.

“First off, Ow,” Reggie gave him a dirty look, “And second we have to normalize talking about it. He can’t keep going like this.”

Alex hated to admit it but Reggie did have a point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It had to be done, Willie and Alex had to become official. 
> 
> Thank you so much to everyone for the feedback! Knowing there are people out there enjoying this story as much as I has been such an inspiration to keep writing. I hope that you continue to keep reading and enjoying! As always comments are appreciated <3


	8. Chapter 8

The one part about the afterlife that was not Alex’s favourite was the lack of personal space. He was pretty much stuck in the garage most of the time with Luke and Reggie which he didn’t always mind but sometimes you just wanted some alone time. Sure maybe he could go and find somewhere to be alone but he didn’t want to hang out in some random place. The garage was comfortable and for now, home. At least Reggie and Luke had become distracted and Alex had finally found some time to himself up in the loft.

He scrolled through Willie’s Instagram profile again, finally able to really look through it. William seemed to have led a fun if not interesting life. There were lots of pictures of him that seemed to span over a few years of his life. He was surprised to see the pictures of him with short hair. Not that he didn’t think Willie couldn’t have short hair, more he had never imagined him any other way than he knew him. There were pictures of him skating, hanging out with friends and family and then even some of him eating food. 

What was with people and taking pictures of their food? It seemed so foreign to him. Digital photography hadn’t really been a thing when he had been alive and with the costs of film and developing there was no way in hell you would waste precious pictures on your dinner or dessert. He could recall a fight with his dad over the time he had used the family camera to snap a bunch of pictures of the band. He had paid for the film and development of the photos but his father had still felt the need to chastise him over the waste of film.

He scrolled through the pictures again, biting his lip as he landed on one of the few pictures of Willie with a girl. It wasn’t like the other’s profile was overrun with pictures of her but there were enough for him to wonder exactly what she had meant to Willie while he had still been alive. 

If he was honest with himself he was in denial. There was no mistaking what their relationship had been, what with the heart emojis used in the posts and the intimate way they seemed to look at each other in some of the pictures. She had to have been a girlfriend.

Girlfriend.

The word cut like a knife. So what, Willie was bi or something. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that it never seemed like the other had actually ended his relationship with the girl. 

Death ended a life, not a relationship.

Suddenly he couldn’t help the jealousy and self-doubt that was bubbling up inside of him. If Willie hadn’t died, would he still be alive and happy with the girl? Was she his soulmate but they had only been separated by death? If Willie had the choice between him and the girl, would he be the second choice?

He hated the way it all made him feel. Learning more about Willie was supposed to be fun, not depressing. He needed something to clear his head, something just for him. More than ever he wished he could go over to Carrie’s.

Carrie.

He looked down at the phone, a nervous smile on his lips as he opened his messages and began to compose one for the girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of fun working on Willie's IG profile. Took a really long time trying to decide how to put it together and use it for the story.
> 
> Thank you to everyone for your support of this story! It's so appreciated! I love love love the feedback! And I hope that you continue to enjoy the story!


	9. Chapter 9

She missed Nick even though she would never admit it. The big house might look impressive to outsiders but it was a lonely prison with no one there to enjoy it. Before Nick, she and Julie had spent plenty of time there together but it seemed that anyone she got close to just left her behind. 

She was flipping through channels on the TV when her phone went off. It was a welcome distraction as she noticed a new message from Julie's hologram friend. A smile pulled at the corner of her lips.

Maybe it wasn't her dad but it was nice to have her music and choreography praised. She had put in countless hours perfecting the routine, she deserved to have that acknowledged. Sure, maybe he was in Sweden but he was super cute. And if they really wanted to make it on the music scene they would have to come to America eventually right? That was why they had teamed up with Julie, it had to be. If their music garnered enough attention they would be set to come to the states and record actual albums and such. 

It was a shame he was a drummer though, you didn't get much attention when you're at the back behind a drum set. She was more a lead guitarist kind of girl but she could settle, at least this once.

The only thing was how to respond without sounding desperate. Carrie Wilson was many things but desperate was not one of them.

\--

\--

Carrie had made sure to pick out her cutest outfit, it didn't hurt to try. She assumed however this whole hologram thing worked he could see her too, it only made sense.

A foreign boyfriend would be just the thing she needed. It would make her sound sophisticated while also ending the humiliation she felt being dumped by Nick. Who needed Nick anyway? He had never defended her or stood up for her when she needed it the most. 

To be fair, she wasn't really that torn up about it. She had only gone after Nick in the first place because she had heard Julie had a crush on him. It wasn't much but she did get some pleasure out of taking the things Julie wanted. When her mom had left everyone told her to get over it and move on. Her dad hadn't even been there for her. When Julie's mom died everyone was there to support  _ her _ . Maybe it was petty jealousy but what made Julie so special that she got everything? At least she had stopped playing which had only allowed Carrie the chance to shine and become the favourite of the music program. She hadn't been upset at all when Julie had gotten kicked out, in fact, it was nice to know for once Julie didn't get everything handed to her.

That was until her hologram band showed up and ruined everything. Well, maybe she could take that from Julie too, starting with Alex.

She looked at her watch, 8:05. With a sigh, she realized he might not be coming tonight. With one last glance around the room she flicked through her phone, starting the music and she began to warm up. 

Closing her eyes she evened her breath, allowing herself to flow with the music. Warming up was the one time she was able to just enjoy herself without having to worry about form or precision. She loved just being able to enjoy the music without any expectations. Why couldn’t it always be like this?

\--

Alex hated that her warm-up music was just whatever. Sure he could dance along with her but the way that Carrie had been looking at her watch made him realize that she was expecting him tonight. How exactly did you say  _ oh yeah, you can only see me when I’m singing _ ?

Maybe she couldn’t see him but he could see her and he smiled. The music had a catchy beat and soon he was moving along with her to the rhythm, allowing himself to just enjoy it. Even if it had only been about a week, he had missed this. And with all the confusing emotions he was having over Willie right now there was nothing better than just dancing it out.

After a couple of songs, Carrie paused for some water and then pulled up her choreography notes.

“Showtime,” Alex smiled even though Carrie couldn’t hear him. She would soon enough.

She put on one of her newer tracks, he had seen her practicing this one. From what he could remember she was going to debut it at the next school assembly, she seemed to enjoy performing there. 

When it got to the lyrics he was able to finally sing along which he assumed would bring him into view of the girl and he was right.

“Oh my god!” She was startled as she stopped dancing, “I will never get used to that.”

Alex couldn’t help but laugh.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said quickly before resuming singing, and he began to dance around her, maybe leaning a little into the overdramatic.

She laughed and that made him smile.

“Where did you learn to dance?” She asked, watching him.

“Music videos,” he winked, “lots and lots of music videos.”

He had somehow figured out a way of alternating between conversation and singing which for the most part had kept him visible. The few times he’d faded in and out it was easy to blame on a crappy signal, technology was the easiest to blame.

He loved Luke and Reggie, he loved Julie, but it was nice to have someone else see him and to interact with. And when Carrie let her bullshit personality go and was just herself, she was a lot of fun.

“I’m exhausted,” Carrie was panting as she looked down at her watch, “I can’t believe it’s already been forty-five minutes.”

“I know but it’s been so much fun!” 

He was beaming from ear to ear as she turned the music off. She turned her attention back to him but a confused look crossed her face.

“Alex?”

“I’m right here…” he sighed knowing that it was no use. He was completely out of sight for her.

“Alex, are you gone?” She continued to look around the studio before finally giving up. Taking a drink from her water bottle she let out a disappointed sigh. “Well, you didn’t have to leave so quickly.”

“I didn’t want to,” she couldn’t hear him but he still had to answer her. 

He watched her go through a few quick stretches before she grabbed her phone and turned off the lights, making her way back upstairs.

Alex waited there in the dark for a moment before finally deciding it was time to head back to the garage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you thank you thank you to everyone for your support! It has been so much fun for me to be able to read all of your comments so please continue! It gives me all of the motivation to keep working on this story! I started another JatP fic, in a way related to this one, but set back in 1994. Feel free to check it out if you like! You're all wonderful! Thank you for reading!
> 
> [ Stuck in my Head ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27217426/chapters/66485137)


	10. Chapter 10

\--

It was at least nice that he contacted her, especially the way he had disappeared so quickly. But really she couldn’t blame him, for all she knew there could have been a power outage on his end or something that had cut his connection.

She made her way to the fridge, grabbing an apple before deciding it was time to go back up to her room. She had the fleeting thought to stop by and say goodnight to her dad but she saw the door to his room was closed and she could hear the sounds of his meditation music and she knew he wouldn’t be happy if she interrupted him.

Closing the door of her room behind her she grabbed her headphones and flopped onto her bed. It was lonely nights like this that she wished she had someone she could  _ actually  _ talk to. She had tried once or twice to open up to Nick but even he hadn’t gotten it. Everyone just assumed that since she had a famous dad and all this money that her life had to be perfect.

It was far from it.

So what did a lonely attention-starved teen do? Look for attention elsewhere.

She began to scroll through some of the photos she had on her phone, finding some from the photoshoot she had done earlier that summer. The look and expression fit perfectly for her current mood. The only thing left was to figure out how to caption it.

She couldn’t outright call out her dad for his neglect. There was an image that had to be maintained and the last thing that she needed was media drama on top of everything else she was dealing with. Song lyrics, on the other hand, no one could fault her for those. Sure it was a vague dig at her dad but if ever asked about it she could always just claim it was a song she had been listening to at the time.

\--

\--

“You seem to be spending a lot of time on there lately.”

Alex looked up from the phone to see Reggie.

“Yeah, well some of us have friends,” he shrugged. 

It was fun to see Flynn’s updates throughout the day. Julie on the other hand did not update her Instagram account half as much

“Were you with Willie earlier?” Reggie gave him a knowing smile.

The name made his stomach knot and the sick feeling of worry came flooding back. He wished Reggie hadn’t mentioned it at all.

He shook his head, “No, I went to go see Carrie.”

“Carrie?” Reggie seemed genuinely surprised. “What’s up with you and her anyway?”

“Well I apologized for scaring her and I’m allowed to go and rehearse with her again, I asked for permission in case she saw me again. Which she did.”

“Do you think that’s such a good idea?” Reggie seemed genuinely concerned, “I mean her dad is Bobby and I’m sure sooner or later he’s going to put two and two together. I mean Carlos did and we weren’t even in a band with him.”

“Yes, well Carlos also had a lot of help getting to that conclusion,” his eyes narrowed at his friend recalling all the times Reggie had intentionally done things to show Carlos the house was haunted. “And I’m not worried about Bobby, I’m more worried about her.”

He held up the phone so that Reggie could see the girl's latest post.

As the boy read it his face fell, “That hits a little close to home.”

“Yeah, me too,” Alex sighed. “I feel like I understand her to some degree, you know?”

“What is that you wrote there?” Reggie squinted as he took a closer look, “ _ Mood _ ?”

“I learned it from Willie,” Alex explained, the name hard for him to say. “It’s like you feel the same way or something like that.”

Reggie nodded, “Yeah okay. Or I mean,  _ mood _ .”

Alex rolled his eyes but he wasn’t actually annoyed with the other. Reggie actually was one of his oldest friends and the reason why he was in Sunset Curve, to begin with. No matter how infuriating, annoying or dense the other could be he would love Reggie forever.

“Any luck coming up with your unfinished business?” He asked, changing the topic.

Reggie shook his head. “No, but really I have no idea where to start. But seeing how often Luke goes and visits his parents it makes me wonder what happened to mine. My old house is gone but my mom and dad still have to be somewhere. And Chris and Krissy too.”

That’s right, he’d been so caught up in everything that had happened since they returned as ghosts he’d never really thought about their families. It made him wonder about his sister at least. 

His parents were complicated. Though he didn’t wish them ill he also didn’t feel a burning desire to find out what they were up to. They hadn’t approved of him in life, it was unlikely that his death had changed their mind any. But he did wonder what Claire was up to.

“How old would your brother and sister be now?” Alex asked as she tried to calculate the age of his own sister.

“25 years right? That’s how long we’ve been gone?” Reggie asked and Alex nodded. 

They both tried to do the mental math.

“Christopher would be 36 and Kristine 34?” Reggie’s voice was filled with disbelief.

“Claire would be 46…” The idea of his sister being so old blew his mind. 

“When did they get so old? Alex, they probably have families of their own by now!”

He had never thought about it before but Reggie was right. They were all definitely of an age to be married and have kids. He couldn’t help but wonder if Claire had married her College boyfriend or not.

“That is really crazy to think about,” he nodded in agreement. “So you want to find your parents?”

Reggie nodded, “I just have no idea where to start. Luke lucked out, his parents were exactly where he left them. Alex, I don’t even know if my parents are still together.”

Alex nodded solemnly, “I know Reg.”

There was a pause of silence before he reached out, bringing his best friend in for a hug. He knew how much the fighting in Reggie’s house had affected his friend. He also knew that Reggie bore the brunt of it to protect his younger siblings and try to keep them as innocent as he could. He had been an amazing older brother.

Letting go he took a step back, wondering how he could help his friend. 

“Why don’t you ask Carlos for help? He’s a pretty good investigator and he knows way more about the internet than any of us. I bet he could help you find out where your family is,” he smiled softly.

Reggie nodded, holding back tears, “Yeah that’s a really good idea. Thanks, Alex.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am overwhelmed by everyone's kindness! Knowing that people are enjoying this story makes it such a joy to work on. I want to say thank you so so so much for your support and encouragement! 
> 
> Also as I worked on this part and what comes next it started to get a little bit darker than I had originally assumed this story would go with Carrie and Alex both dealing with parent issues. It's nothing crazy but wanted to let you all know!
> 
> As always thank you for reading and please leave comments, I love to hear your feedback!


	11. Chapter 11

-

Carrie saw the comment notification. It was nice to know that not only was Alex messaging her but he paid attention to her posts. She was a little surprised by his response and it only made her more intrigued.

Honestly, she knew next to nothing about the boy other than he was on the other side of the world and in a band with Julie. They had never really talked about anything besides music. But if he felt he related to her post then maybe there was the possibility of an actual conversation with him. It was just hard to talk to him when he popped in and out of her practice without warning.

Should she message him?

It scared her to be vulnerable with someone. Her whole life she had to take care of herself and even though she really wanted someone to do it for her, she didn’t exactly know how to break down the walls she had built. It didn’t help that any time she attempted to let someone in she was abandoned again.

He was halfway around the world though, so what really was the harm? What was he gonna do, tell Julie? She could handle Julie with her eyes closed.

With a sigh, she looked down at the phone in her hands. She had just been wishing that she had someone to talk to, maybe now was her chance.

-

-

Okay, so he was gay. But surprisingly that didn’t bother Carrie in the slightest. More than a boyfriend she just really wanted a friend and she was starting to realize that maybe Alex could fill that void in her life, at least as much as he could while still being in Sweden. Though a long-distance friend was better than no friend at all. 

She blushed a little wondering if he had noticed the way she had tried to flirt with him, it was embarrassing to think about but in her defence, she honestly hadn’t known. At least if he had noticed he had enough decency to not draw attention to it. It would have been hard though, to finally get the courage to confide something like that in your parents and have them act that way? And she thought she had it bad.

The surprising thing was even with all that he still seemed to be a very happy and fun guy to be around. She wondered how someone with so much hurt in their lives could genuinely act like that. It wasn’t that she didn’t _want_ to be happy, she just didn’t know _how_ to be. It was nice to know that she could message Alex any time she wanted to. A part of her wanted to keep messaging him but she also didn’t want to ruin this so she held back. Maybe she would later, but for now, it was probably best if she got some sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! You're all amazing I hope you know that! I have sooo been loving the feedback I'm getting on this story and it makes me want to write it ALL THE TIME. So keep it coming! lol
> 
> That being said, I do have a NaNoWriMo project going on which means updates in November maaaaaaaaaaaay be slow. I enjoy this story too much so I'm sure it will distract me but I'm going to try to work on my project so we'll see when the next update is! Thank you so much for being patient with me!!


	12. Chapter 12

It was amazing what a night of sleep could do for a person. That and an actual genuine conversation with someone. Carrie found herself humming as she searched through the fridge for something to eat that morning. It had been nice to chat with Alex the night before and she was trying to come up with an excuse to message him again. A part of her wondered if he would message her first but she couldn’t count on that.

-

“What kind of dad do you think Bobby would be?” Alex wondered aloud.

Ever since his chat with Carrie the night before the question had been bothering him. He had known Bobby, they all had, and sure sometimes he could be stupid he was overall a decent guy. It was hard to imagine him as the dad that Carrie had painted a picture of.

Luke looked up from the papers in front of him to give him a puzzled look, “What kind of question is that?”

Alex shrugged, “I don’t know. We’ve been so preoccupied with him stealing Sunset Curve’s songs that we haven’t really stopped to notice the kind of guy that Trevor Wilson is. Besides, Julie said that when she was friends with Carrie he used to talk music with them. So he couldn’t be that awful could he?”

“He’s a song stealing asshole,” Luke muttered, “that makes him pretty awful in my books.”

“Luke has a point,” Reggie chimed in.

“Yeah okay, but what about back then? He was part of our band and one of our friends. If we had thought he was that awful would we have kept him around?” 

Luke and Reggie paused to think which caused Alex to only think harder on the subject.

“Yeah, Bobby was a good guy. Trevor Wilson obviously isn’t. Whatever happened between our deaths and now changed the guy,” Luke finally admitted.

“So what happened between our deaths and now?” Alex prodded further.

Reggie sighed, “I would love to know that. Like what happened to my family and why is my old house a bike shop?”

Alex rolled his eyes, “You’re really not giving up the bike shop thing are you?”

Reggie just crossed his arms with a huff.

“Look, we’ve been so focused on the here and now that we haven’t figured out what went on for the past 25 years. Don’t you think that we should at least find that out? Maybe make some sense out of why Bobby stole our songs and changed his name?” Alex finally said.

“But that’s the whole point, the past is the past. Why wouldn’t we just move on from here?” Luke seemed genuinely confused as to why the past would matter at all.

“Maybe if we found out what happened we might be able to figure out our unfinished business and cross over? I mean it’s just an idea,” Alex shrugged.

“What if I don’t want to cross over? Alex man, why can’t you see what a blessing this all is?” Luke held up the paper in his hands, “With Julie on our side we’re unstoppable.”

“It has been fun to play music again,” Reggie admitted.

Alex nodded, “I know, it’s fun for me too. But we’re dead, we’re never going to change. We still look exactly like we did 25 years ago. And in 25 more years, it will be the same except Julie? Julie is going to grow up. She’s going to move on with her life and start her own family. Do you really think she wants three ghosts following her around forever?”

Luke didn’t say anything before disappearing.

“You know I’m right,” Alex turned to Reggie.

Reggie just had a sombre look on his face, “Maybe I’ll leave a message in Carlos’ room. I think it’s time I found my family.”

Soon Alex found himself standing alone in the garage. Was he really on his own with this? At first, an eternity didn’t seem so bad, especially when he thought he could spend it with Willie. But then he’d found out about the other’s girlfriend and everything changed.

-

-

Her last comment made him chuckle if only Willie could live at all. Though to be fair if he was living he would still be with that girl and where would that leave him? 

Alex found himself up in the loft once more as he messaged his new friend. Reggie and Luke were back but you could tell there was still a little tension in the air. He knew how much music meant to Luke but at the end of the day they were dead and one day they would have to face up to that fact.

“Hey, it’s Willie!”

Alex felt dread wash over him as he heard Reggie call out. He’d been avoiding the other for the past few days, it was no surprise that Willie had eventually shown up at the garage. Within seconds he was on the ground floor of the garage beside Reggie as the ghost of his dreams walked in.

“Hey guys,” Willie nodded at Luke and Reggie. “Alex, can we talk?”

Luke chuckled with a glint in his eye, “Yeah, I bet you want to talk.”

Alex couldn’t help serving his friend with a dirty look before turning back to Willie. “Yeah sure, let’s go outside.”

They walked out into the garden a bit of a distance from the garage. Alex already knew this wasn’t going to be an easy conversation and the last thing he needed was Reggie and Luke being nosey.

“You sure it’s okay to be here?” Alex looked around, “I’m sure Caleb would be pretty pissed to find you here.”

It was true, Caleb had all but forbidden Willie from seeing them, it was one of the reasons why he and Willie spent their time together away from the garage.

“I’m not here to talk about Caleb,” Willie replied.

Alex held his hands up, “Sorry, then what did you want to talk about?”

Willie sized him up, a look of disappointment on his face, “Where have you been?”

“Busy,” Alex shrugged.

Willie let out a sigh of annoyance, “The last time we were together you made this big deal about defining what our relationship was. And then you just ghost me?”

Alex looked at him confused, “I _am_ a ghost.”

Willie tried to look annoyed but it came out more as a laugh, “It means disappearing without a trace. You just stopped talking to me with no warning.”

Alex bit his lip nervously, “Maybe I did something I shouldn’t have. And then I didn’t know how to talk to you after it?”

Willie raised an eyebrow, “And just what exactly did you do?”

Alex kicked at a stone but he was feeling so nervous that his foot just went right through it without it even moving. He hated being vulnerable like this but it wasn’t like Willie was really giving him a choice right now.

“Remember how you told me you had an Instagram? I looked it up,” he finally admitted.

“Okay..?”

Alex sighed, “You had a girlfriend.”

“Lydia…” Willie sat down on a rock, “wow, I’d almost forgotten all about that. It’s not that you exactly forget your life from when you’re living but after time it just doesn’t start to matter, you know? I would have had pictures with her on there.”

“Did the two of you break up?”

Willie just shrugged, “Not really but I mean it’s hard to do that when you’re dead.”

“So, you still have feelings for her?” Alex couldn’t help himself from asking.

Willie just patted the empty space of rock beside him. Alex hesitated at first before going over to sit with him. It felt comforting as Willie took his hand and laced their fingers together.

“Lyds was amazing and we had a lot of fun. But I’ve died and I’m sure if she hasn’t already, she will move on eventually,” Willie smiled softly at him. “Alex you have nothing to worry about, you’re my only afterlife partner.”

“Yeah, but if she was dead or we were alive would you choose her over me?”

“Always with the questions huh?”

“I can’t help it…” Alex looked away.

Reaching out Willie turned his gaze back to him. “Alex, I can’t answer that question because honestly, I have no idea. But why are you worrying about something that will never happen? I’ve chosen you, that should be enough.”

Maybe he had overreacted when he saw the pictures. They were so close now and he studied Willie’s face, memorizing every feature. Slowly he closed the distance between them, his eyes closing as he pressed his lips against the others. Instantly all of his doubts and worries melted away.

“So we cool?” Willie asked as they parted.

Alex nodded slowly, “Yeah, we’re cool. Except for the fact that you never told me you played music too. There was a super cute picture of you with a ukulele on there.”

Willie just laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for all of your comments and support! I hope you enjoy this update! Still working on my NaNo project but was happy to be able to get this part done!


	13. Chapter 13

“Where’s Alex been lately? It seems he’s always up to something…” Alex heard Julie ask as he appeared in the garage.

“Present and accounted for,” he gave a nervous laugh as he raised his hand.

Julie turned to look at him, “Oh, well you weren’t here a minute ago.”

“Alex found himself a ghostfriend,” Luke winked with a laugh.

“Oh, I didn’t realize ghosts could find love,” Julie turned to him with a smile.

“That and he’s been moonlighting as a backup dancer too,” Reggie piped up.

Alex shot him a look which only confused the poor boy.

He had never exactly said that his visits with Carrie were secret and sure Julie knew about the initial incident, but he knew that the two girls were still rivals and he wasn’t exactly sure how Julie would feel about the whole thing.

“Dancing?” Julie raised an eyebrow. “Are you still going to Carrie’s?”

Alex bit his lip looking sheepishly at the ground, “Sometimes yeah.”

“And he’s always messaging her on that phone you gave us,” Reggie added.

“Reg!” Alex was about to lose his shit on his best friend. Reggie never could read a room.

“Is there something going on between you and Carrie that I should know about?” Julie questioned.

“It’s really nothing,” Alex explained.

“Sounds like a little more than nothing. You know she’s our rival right?” 

“Reminds me of a show my little sister used to watch… what was it called again?” Reggie wondered aloud though most of them ignored him.

“Well…” Alex started, “rival is kind of a strong word. Look, I just like to dance with her and we’ve started to message a little. She can’t be that bad, you said you used to be friends.”

Julie let out a sigh, “Yeah, used to be. I just don’t want you to be hurt like I was.”

“The show was about these two rival bands, one of them was a hologram band, kind of fitting because that’s us, right?” Reggie was still going on with his own conversation in the background.

Alex smiled, reaching out to hug Julie, “Look, I’ll be careful. But I promise you and our band will always be my number one priority.”

Julie hugged him back, “I’m not her biggest fan, but I wouldn’t take dancing away from you. I saw that smile you had when you were on stage that night.”

“Jem and the Holograms!” Reggie called out, very pleased with himself and finally drawing the attention of the rest of the band.

“What?” Luke asked having not paid attention to his background chatter.

“The show my little sister watched, it was Jem and the Holograms. And we’re Julie and the Phantoms, come on you’ve got to admit that it’s kinda funny!” Reggie was grinning.

“Hilarious,” Alex nodded, giving Reggie the validation he had been looking for.

“Reggie, I didn’t know you had a sister,” Julie looked between them all. “In fact, I don’t know much about any of you outside of your music and how you died.

“Well you already know Luke was an only child,” Alex started. “I had an older sister, or I guess have. I’m sure she’s still around somewhere.”

“And I had a younger brother and younger sister,” Reggie added.

“That must be so hard, having left family behind but never being able to reach out to them,” Julie gave them a sad smile.

Alex shrugged, “It is what it is. It’s not like we can do much about it now.”

“Besides, I left Carlos a note to try and track down my family online,” Reggie grinned. “Even if I can’t visit them it would be nice to know how they’re doing.”

“Are you guys still up for practicing? This has been some heavy stuff to talk about,” Julie couldn’t help but ask.

Luke grinned, “Of course we do! Music is the only thing we’re able to keep doing.”

“What he said,” Reggie smiled pointing at Luke and Alex just nodded.

\--

“Want some water?” Carrie offered as she held out her water bottle.

Alex shook his head, “Nah, I’m good.”

He wasn’t sure how it was happening but lately, it seemed that he was able to stay visible for a little longer around Carrie. Maybe it was the fact that they were becoming closer friends or maybe he was just getting more control over his ghost abilities, but whatever it was he was enjoying it.

“I don’t get how you can go so long without a water break,” Carrie gave him a look.

“Hologram, remember?” Alex forced a laugh, “I couldn’t drink your water if I tried. Besides I’ve got some on my end, it’s all good.”

Carrie shrugged, deciding to just let it go.

Alex had never really noticed the pictures on the far wall before. He had always been too distracted by dancing that there wasn’t much time to just study his surroundings. Now that he and Carrie actually had some time to talk he found himself taking it all in.

Most of the pictures seemed to be of different performances or awards that Carrie had done. She was talented, he had to give her that. If she weren’t, there probably wouldn’t have been any point in him being here. It was nice to see the way she smiled so brightly in the pictures, sadly she didn’t seem to smile much like that lately.

“Hey, is that you and Julie?” Alex asked as he pointed to a photo of the two girls, obviously a few years younger.

Carrie blushed, “Oh that? Yeah, I keep forgetting to take it down. Ancient history.”

Alex gave her a look but decided to drop it. There was obviously more to Carrie and Julie’s falling out than he knew but he also knew that trying to meddle in the middle of it, especially without knowing the details, wouldn’t do anyone any good.

He continued to look at the pictures before one of them caught his attention. As he stared at it his stomach began to knot and he felt like he was going to be sick.

“Who…. who is that?” He finally managed to ask.

“Oh,” Carrie said softly as she noticed the picture Alex was staring at. “That’s my mom.”

What the hell was going on? How could he have missed this all along? If this was some kind of joke he didn’t think it was funny at all.

“Alex? Alex what is it? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Carrie walked over towards him.

“It’s nothing,” Alex looked away. “I have to go.”

Without another word, Alex vanished into thin air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has been waiting for this update! I know it kind of leaves off with more questions than answers but wanted to give you all something! Hopefully, updates will be a little more regular again after November is over! Enjoy and thank you so so much to everyone for reading and especially to those who leave comments! They always make my day!


	14. Chapter 14

\--

Carrie sighed as she stared at her phone. Alex hadn’t replied to her yet and now she was starting to get worried. Everything seemed to be going fine, she couldn’t figure out what she had done to scare him off. She looked over at the picture of her mom again, it was the last thing he’d been looking at before he suddenly disappeared. She couldn’t figure out what exactly had spooked him, it was just a normal picture. 

Her dad hated any reminders of her mom around the house so she hid it down in her studio. He rarely ever came down here so he couldn’t be bothered by it.

With one last glance at her phone, she stood up, grabbing her water bottle before heading upstairs.

“Dad?” She called out as she reached the main floor though she was only met with silence. It wasn’t shocking really, he always seemed to have something to do. Walking into the kitchen to fill her water she noticed a note scrawled out on the counter.

_ Love you Carrie, _

_ Therapy appointment, I’ll bring home some dinner _

Of course, her dad was gone. Everyone was gone. Ever since Alex had left the other night she hadn’t heard from him once. She made her way to the living room and noticed a box of her dad’s old stuff laying out. She’d seen him go through some of his stuff before but he’d never let her touch it. 

Taking one last look around to make sure her dad hadn’t come home she walked over, poking her nose through the box.

She pulled out a couple of year books and flipped through them, nothing really noteworthy seeming to stick out. Maybe it wasn’t such a big deal that her dad never let her look through the stuff if it was this boring.

There was a CD hiding underneath the yearbooks and she pulled it out.

“Sunset Curve?”

She opened up the case taking out the insert opening it up, smiling as she noticed her dad’s younger face. She knew he’d been in bands as a teenager before breaking out as a solo artist. He didn’t talk much about that time. 

After taking the time to study her dad she looked at the other boys, letting out a gasp of surprise. 

“What the fuck?!”

She pulled the picture closer, it couldn’t be. Beside her dad was a blonde boy that looked  _ exactly _ like Alex. How in the world could there be a teen in Sweden that looked like a clone of her dad’s bandmate from high school.

As she studied the insert closely she swallowed hard. The other two band members seemed to be the spitting image of Julie’s hologram band. Suddenly her dad’s interest in Julie’s band didn’t seem so crazy.

Leaving the insert open she laid it out on the coffee table and pulled out a photo album, starting to flip through the pages. It was filled with photos with her dad and the three boys from the band, flyers of shows that Sunset Curve had played as well as some ticket stubs. The last page of the album had a cut out from a newspaper. It had faded a bit over time but Carrie tried to read through it anyway.

“Three teens dead from food poisoning….”

She felt sick, none of this made sense. Why was Julie’s band pretty much her dad’s band from high school? Did this have something to do with why Alex was avoiding her? Suddenly she felt like she was owed some explanations. Her dad would be useless, he never told her anything. Alex on the other hand might actually say something with the right motivation.

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short update because I had too much fun making the chats that I wanted to share them! Thank you to everyone for being so patient with me this past month! I also promise to work on my other JatP fic soon too!


	15. Chapter 15

Alex had felt sick ever since he’d gotten that last message from Carrie. There was just so much going through him right now that he didn’t know how to feel. 

He was trying desperately to not think about what he’d seen at Carrie’s house but it was hard to do when she kept sending him messages all the time. He’d thought about just putting the phone away but for some reason, he wasn’t able to do that either.

He didn’t like doing this to Carrie, it wasn’t her fault. He just needed time to sort his own shit out. But the picture she’d just sent him he knew well, it was on the insert of their demo CD. They had argued for days about what picture to use so there was no way he would mistake it.

So what? She’d found a Sunset Curve CD. That didn’t mean she knew what it all meant. Though it was hard to deny the fact that he looked exactly like the 17-year-old in that picture from 25 years ago, mostly because he was still that 17 years old. 

He wondered how old Willie was, like just how long he’d been dead. Sure they seemed the same age but who knew, maybe he was some kid that died during the Civil War, it wasn’t like ghosts aged. He laughed at himself thinking what a ridiculous idea that was, of course, Willie hadn’t died that long ago, he had an Instagram! That meant his boyfriend was actually younger than him, possibly by 20 years. It was kind of creepy when you thought about it that way. But to be fair he’d spent 25 years crying so they didn’t count. He still felt like he was 17. Besides, the rules were different in the afterlife, right?

Alex sighed, how did his thoughts get so sidetracked. He was trying to worry about the Carrie problem, not figure out the age difference between him and Willie.

Reggie had warned him that spending time with Carrie was a bad idea. He had to learn to take Reggie more seriously sometimes. He had honestly thought there was no way that Carrie would figure out about them but it was obvious that she had, or at least that she was on the right track. 

“You look wound a little tighter than usual,” Willie chuckled as he skated up. Taking off his helmet he pulled Alex up off the bench he’d been sitting on, wrapped his arm around him and caught his lips in a kiss.

Alex couldn’t help smiling from ear to ear. Willie always had a way of making him feel good. As the kiss broke Alex couldn’t stop himself from going in for a second and his boyfriend was happy to oblige.

“Everything alright?” Willie asked as they finally parted.

He shook his head, “No, everything feels all muddled up again. Reggie is all focused on trying to find his family and that’s messing with me and then Carrie found an old Sunset Curve CD.”

“Oh,” Willie nodded, “And I’m guessing there were pictures on the CD?”

Alex nodded.

“Okay so you look like some rocker back in the 90s, there is nothing wrong with that. Has she actually figured it out that you’re dead?”

“I don’t think so,” Alex shrugged, “but I don’t think that she’s too far from putting it all together. The worst part is, I’m not so worried about her finding out about me, it’s more what that is gonna do for Julie. Carrie isn’t really the nicest to her and I don’t want to make things worse.”

“And what about Reggie? Why does he want to find his family? The past is in the past, it’s not like he can talk to them anymore,” Willie shrugged.

“That’s what I’m thinking! But him trying to find his brother and sister has me thinking about my sister and I just... What if I don’t want to find out? What if I don’t like what I find?” 

Alex could feel himself spiralling and he was thankful for Willie taking his hand and squeezing it, helping to ground him again.

“How about we not worry about things like that and go blow off some steam. Wanna dance or something?” Willie offered.

Alex shook his head, “I’m not really feeling that right now. What about yelling in a museum?”

Willie just grinned, “That I can help you with.”

\--

Julie closed her locker to find Carrie staring at her and she jumped back. She was going to need notice if this was going to become a regular thing. 

“So is Alex dead or something?” Carrie snapped.

Julie blinked, there was no way that Carrie could know that right? She gave a nervous laugh, “What are you talking about Carrie?”

“He won’t answer my messages,” Carrie huffed. “Look do you know why? He’s your bandmate.”

Well, this was news to her. Just the other day Alex had admitted he was still seeing and messaging Carrie. If anything had happened she certainly wasn’t in the loop.

“You know I wouldn’t worry, I’m sure he’s just busy over in Switzerland,” She shrugged as she flipped her bag over her shoulder.

“I thought they were in Sweden?” Carrie eyed her suspiciously.

“Right,” Julie gave a laugh, “Sweden. He’s just been busy with the band and his boyfriend and then the time difference on top of everything.”

Carries eyes narrowed, “Time difference, of course.”

Julie watched as Carrie flipped her hair, turning on her heel and walked away.

“What did Ms. Evil want with you?” Flynn asked as she walked over.

“Alex has been making friends with her and apparently he’s stopped messaging. She wanted to know if I knew why,” she explained.

Flynn raised an eyebrow, “Wait, Alex is messaging Carrie? Why isn’t he messaging me?”

Julie just rolled her eyes as they started to walk down the hall, “It’s a long story, I’ll fill you in later okay?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I know I still haven't resolved things! But we will get there! Soon! I promise! Pieces will start coming together in the next chapter. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone for all of your support as well as all your kind words in the comments! It means so much to me and I absolutely love you all for it! The support on this fic floors me and makes me so happy and eager to update.
> 
> So even though not much happens I hope you enjoyed this chapter! <3


	16. Chapter 16

“Smells good,” Trever hummed as he walked into the kitchen.

Carrie just rolled her eyes at her dad, “It’s just spaghetti.”

“Yeah, made by you,” he grinned, kissing the top of her head.

It wasn’t often that she made meals for the two of them but she needed to talk to her dad and she figured a little bit of sucking up wouldn’t help. He was always putty in her hands when she did things like this.

“You home tonight?” She asked before tasting the sauce. It was out of a jar and all she had done was heat it up but she still wanted to make sure it tasted good. It did.

“You got it. I figure we can have dinner together and then I’ll probably take some time to meditate, do some yoga,” he nodded.

She smiled, this would be perfect, “Well it’s almost ready.”

It was always a treat when she got to spend time with her dad. Sure she liked the perks of him being famous and rich but overall she wished they could spend more time together. Even mundane things like dishing out dinner and setting the table seemed almost exciting when they got to do it together.

“So what’s the occasion?” He asked when they had finally sat down to eat.

Carrie inhaled deeply, there was no time like the present.

“The other day you left out some of your high school stuff, I couldn’t help myself…”

She pulled out the CD she’d taken from his box and placed it on the table between them.

“How come you never talk about your band back then? I listened to the CD, you were really good,” she was looking at him pleadingly, willing for him to answer.

Trevor exhaled putting his fork down and leaned back in his chair.

“It’s hard to talk about painful things,” he finally replied.

“Why’s it so painful?” 

She had an idea, the newspaper article that said over half the band died was a pretty big clue, but she wanted to hear it from him.

“Baby, I don’t really want to talk about this right now. Can we just enjoy our dinner?”

And there it was. He always did this. He always shut her out. This time she wasn’t going to let him.

“But  _ I _ want to talk about it. I’m tired of all the secrets and of you running away to therapy appointments all the time. Come on dad, I’m your daughter. You can trust me.”

Trevor reached out, taking the CD in his hands. Opening the jewel case he pulled out the insert.

“We were seniors but nothing mattered more than our music. I was barely passing my classes and I doubt the other guys were better. We had been working our asses off, playing every gig we could get and calling in every favour we had.”

She noticed a faint smile on her dad’s lips which in turn caused her to smile. For the first time, he was finally opening up to her about his past. At least all of it didn’t seem to be that bad.

Trevor looked up at her and she noticed his eyes were wet.

“They were my best friends, we did everything together. We finally got our big break, we were going to play the Orpheum. Luke,” he pointed to the boy’s picture on the insert, “he kept going on about how we would be famous after that show.”

“So what happened then? I’ve never heard of Sunset Curve.”

“Hot dogs, that’s what happened,” he closed the insert, putting it back down on the table.

So the accident had happened before the show.

“Can you explain it a little more than that?” Reaching out she took her father’s hand, giving it a squeeze.

“We’d just finished our soundcheck, we were on fire. Alex, Luke and Reggie wanted to go for street dogs, you know last meal before making it big,” he started.

“Why weren’t you with them?” She interrupted.

Her dad chuckled, “It was stupid. There was a girl I was trying to impress, she was into yoga and all about saving the animals and being a vegetarian. At the time I hadn’t fully adopted the lifestyle myself, it was more to show off. There was another cute girl at the soundcheck so I was trying the vegetarian card on her.”

“Did it work?” Carrie couldn’t help but be amused.

“It didn’t,” he shook his head, “but it did help me escape death.”

She watched as her dad wiped the tears from his eyes.

“There was no good reason that I wasn’t there with them… It was sheer dumb luck. My therapist calls it survivor's guilt.

Carrie squeezed her dad’s hand again, “You have nothing to be guilty of. You had no idea those hot dogs would kill them.”

Trevor nodded, “Thanks, baby.”

She let go of his hand, picking up the insert and opening it again.

“You said his name is Luke,” she pointed to the teen her father had mentioned earlier, “and that’s you. Who are the two on the ends?”

Her father swallowed hard. “That’s Reggie,” he said pointing to the boy on the far right, “and Alex,” he pointed to the other on the far left.

Carrie felt a knot start to form in her stomach. What were the chances that the one who looked  _ exactly  _ like her Alex was also named Alex?

\--

It had been a weird day. First, there was dealing with Carrie and then having to explain everything to Flynn. Now she had to talk to Alex and try to figure it all out. She really hated being in the middle of everything. If Alex wanted to be friends with Carrie she wished that she could just be left out of it.

Unfortunately due to circumstances that would never be the case.

Entering the garage she tried to gauge the room and overall the vibe seemed good enough.

“Hey, Julie!” Luke smiled brightly as he noticed her enter the room and both the other guys looked over at her as well.

“Hey,” she replied trying to figure out how she could talk to Alex alone. “Reggie, Carlos found some information for you. Told me to tell you he left it out in his room.”

Reggie’s eyes lit up with excitement, “My family!” He was gone as soon as the words were out of his mouth.

Luke locked eyes with her and without any words he nodded, disappearing as well.

“How are things going?” She asked, moving over to the couch where Alex was chilling.

“Alright,” he answered in a tone that made her believe that he was not.

This might be a little harder than expected.

“Carrie came and talked to me again today,” she tried again.

She could notice Alex visibly tense up.

“Alex, did something happen with Carrie? She seemed upset that you stopped messaging her,” Julie explained.

She waited for him to respond which meant that they sat in silence for a few minutes. 

“She found a CD,” he finally replied.

Well, that wasn’t what she expected. 

“A Sunset Curve CD?” 

He nodded, “Yeah. She texted me a picture. I think she’s starting to figure it out. I freaked out. I didn’t really know what to say so I just stopped talking.”

Julie nodded, “I can see how that would freak you out. If I’m honest I’m a little freaked out now.”

Alex sighed, “You know Carrie better than any of us… what do you think will happen if she actually figures it all out?”

Julie shrugged, “No clue. She is kind of a wild card. At the same time I mean who would believe her? A band with ghosts, that’s crazy right?”

“I feel bad, she didn’t do anything wrong…” Alex admitted, “And I do miss talking to her.”

She studied him carefully, “Why do you care so much about Carrie?”

The question seemed to make him close off again.

Julie moved to take a seat beside him on the couch, “I’m only trying to help.”

Alex studied the ground for a moment before finally looking up at her.

“I guess she just reminds me of someone I knew… you know when I was alive.”

Julie chuckled, “I figured. Were they important to you?”

Alex nodded.

“Then talk to her. She’s obviously missing talking to you, I’m sure the two of you can work this out. And don’t worry about the Sunset Curve thing, there is nothing we can do about it now. Even without you talking to her there was still a chance for her to figure it out, right? You said her dad was in the band with you,” Julie shrugged. “I mean if we could deal with a ghost curse together I think we can figure anything out.”

Alex smiled softly, He was so grateful that Julie had come into their lives. Sure, being dead sucked, but they never would have gotten to know Julie otherwise.

“Thanks, Julie, that really means a lot.”

She nodded, standing up. “Now message her before she attacks me in the hallway again.”

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone for reading and commenting! It means so much to me. I am so happy you're enjoying this fic as much as I am! Hope you all enjoy the update!


	17. Chapter 17

“I can’t believe that Carlos was able to find Chris and Krissy! Wow, I wonder what they are going to be like!”

Reggie was speaking a mile a minute. Alex wasn’t exactly sure how he had been convinced to go on this excursion but here he was. He thought it would be fun to get out of the garage and maybe have something else to focus on instead of the crazy going on in his head.

Unfortunately, Reggie going on and on about his family wasn’t helping him deal with his issues with his.

“So who’s place are we visiting first?” Alex asked, trying to get his friend to focus again.

“Krissy, Chris moved to the east coast but my sister stayed here,” Reggie beamed.

He just shook his head, “We’re ghosts. You know we can travel anywhere we want right? We can visit your brother too.”

Reggie looked over at him with an uncertain look. 

“I kind of want to do it a little bit at a time,” his friend admitted sheepishly. “I mean, I’m not sure what I’m going to find so I want to give it a little bit of time for it to all sink in, you know? Before seeing more.”

Alex nodded, putting his arm around Reggie in a half hug. With everything he was going through he could understand that reasoning.

“Alright, so you ready for this?” Alex asked and Reggie nodded.

It only took a second for them to move from the street outside into the apartment they now stood in.

“Is that cat looking at me?” Reggie said pointing to the fluffy animal a few feet away.

“They always said animals were able to sense spirits, must be true,” Alex shrugged. “So this is where your sister lives huh? It’s cute.”

“I’m glad she’s doing alright for herself,” Reggie smiled as he began to snoop around the apartment. “She must be at work or something.”

Alex watched as Reggie started in the kitchen and began to rummage through drawers and cupboards.

“Fruit Loops,” Reggie chuckled as he pulled a box out of one of the cupboards. “She always did love them growing up.”

Alex was happy for Reggie, really he was, but he couldn’t help the crushing disappointment that if he tracked down his sister Claire he wouldn’t like what he saw. At least Reggie’s sister seemed to be doing well and leading a happy life. He knew it wouldn’t be the same for his own sister and whatever he found he wouldn’t like it.

“Alex?”

He looked up at the sound of his name, “What?”

Reggie walked over to him, a worried look on his face, “I called your name three times… are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he lied, forcing a smile.

Reggie just gave him a look, “Come on Alex, we’ve been friends forever and I know you better than that. Tell me what’s going on and maybe I can help you out.”

“Can we at least sit on the couch?” Alex motioned over to the living room.

Reggie nodded with a smile, “Of course, whatever makes you comfortable.”

There wasn’t much that made Alex feel comfortable lately. He settled into the corner of the couch and grabbed a throw pillow, hugging it tightly against his chest as he tried to find the words to tell his friend about what was going on.

“I guess I’m just jealous,” he finally admitted much to Reggie’s surprise.

“Jealous of what?”

“Of this,” Alex motioned around the room. “You get to find out that your sister is doing fine.”

Reaching out Reggie put his hand on Alex’s knee. “You know, I’m sure Carlos could find Claire too if you asked him to.”

“I’ve already found her…” he finally admitted for the first time as he felt the knot in his stomach tighten. Admitting it out loud made it that much more real.

“Wait, what?”

Alex sighed as he closed his eyes, “Well at least sort of. I know what happened to her at least.”

“Alex… what happened to Claire?”

He opened his eyes to see Reggie’s face full of worry. He’d come this far, he might as well get it all out.

“It happened the last time I saw Carrie. She had some pictures hanging on the wall and one of them….” As the words came out he started to feel sick, not sure he could continue.

“One of them…?” Reggie prompted.

“It was Claire, she had a picture of my sister hanging on her wall. She was older but there was no mistaking it,” Alex began to bite his lower lip. 

“Why would Carrie have a picture of your sister on her wall?”

Of course, Reggie would ask that, even though the answer was obvious. But sometimes the obvious answers are the most unbelievable ones.

“Claire is Carrie’s mom,” He finally admitted.

Reggie sat there as shocked as he was. There was silence as they both were trying to process it.

“Wait, Bobby hooked up with your sister?!” Reggie asked, obviously perplexed.

“Oh my god…” Alex made a disgusted face, “Oh god, I never thought about that! What the hell!!”

“Wait, that’s not what you were upset about?” Reggie was confused again.

“No! I hadn’t even thought about that until you brought it up. Thank you, I did _not_ need that image in my head. No, Carrie’s mom abandoned her and that’s not like my sister. She would never do something like that!” Alex was heartbroken as he continued to speak.

“Claire, the sister who accepted me for who I was even when my parents couldn’t. The one who supported me no matter what I did… She took care of me and was my best friend growing up. I just can’t believe that she would ever abandon her own child.”

He couldn’t hold it in anymore as he began to cry. He felt Reggie’s arms wrap around him and he clung to his best friend as he sobbed. Even if it had been hard, it was nice to finally have gotten all of that out. The secret had been eating him from the inside out.

Reggie began to rub his back soothingly and soon Alex began to calm down.

“Wait, does this mean Carrie is your niece?”

He had never thought about it that way. He’d always felt a connection to the girl, one he couldn’t explain. And then there was the fact that she was able to see him. Maybe it was because of their familial tie.

“I’m an uncle?” He asked as he sat up straight, wiping his eyes.

“I guess so. I wonder if I am too…” Reggie began to look around the room again for any signs that either of his siblings might have kids.

“Sorry,” Alex gave his friend an apologetic look, “today was supposed to be about you and your family and I kind of just dumped my family drama in the middle of it.”

Reggie shrugged with a smile, “Nah, today is just about family. And I’m happy that you’ve learned something about yours too. And I’m glad you felt like you could share with me.”

Alex blushed, hating the attention being on him. Standing up he walked over to some framed pictures on the wall, “So what has the Peters family been up to for the last 25 years?”

Reggie came up beside him, “I’m guessing my parents finally got that divorce…”

Alex nodded, there was not a single picture that the two of the other’s parents were in together. “I think they might have married other people…” 

He pointed to a picture with Reggie’s mom in the arms of a man he didn’t recognize.

“I… I have step-parents?” Reggie’s face was white in shock.

Alex put his arm around him, “Why don’t we head back to the garage for now?”

Reggie nodded without making another sound.

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed the update. I think a lot of you already knew what was coming but now it's been made official! Thank you for all of your support and encouragement! I hope that you continue to read and comment! And happy holidays to everyone!


	18. Chapter 18

“So you really were in a band with my dad?” Carrie asked.

Alex nodded.

“And you’re dead?”

“Yes, very dead,” Alex agreed.

“And now you’re in a band with Julie?” Carrie blinked as she tried to take this all in. None of this was possible, was it?

“Yeah, Julie and the Phantoms. You know, ‘cause we’re ghosts. Flynn came up with the idea,” Alex replied.

“Cute,” Carrie said in a way that made it sound like she didn’t think it was that cute at all.

“You know, you’re handling this all pretty well…” Alex said nervously.

Carrie sighed, “Well I’ve had a few days to kind of figure it out on my own. So why can people see you when you play?”

“That is the million-dollar question,” Alex shrugged. “But it’s only when we play. Julie can see us all of the time though. You on the other hand….” his voice trailed off.

“Me?”

“I think I might have figured out why you can see me,” he finally answered.

“And why’s that?” She asked, crossing her arms and shifting into her hip.

“Maybe you should sit down for this?” He offered, patting the floor beside him.

They were in her rehearsal studio. Alex had seated himself on the floor, leaning back against one of the walls while Carrie had been pacing the floor in front of him. It was a little different being on this side of it, he could see why his pacing drove Luke crazy, it was a little unnerving to watch.

Carrie finally relented, taking a seat beside him. “Fine, I’m sitting.”

“Remember that time I saw the picture of your mom?” Alex asked, pointing to the framed picture on the wall opposite them.

Carrie nodded, “Yeah, you ran away right after that.”

Alex fidgeted for a moment, “Do you know your mom’s name?”

Carrie rolled her eyes, “Claire Mercer.”

“Claire Mercer is my sister,” Alex said softly.

“Excuse me?” Carrie shook her head, not sure if she had heard Alex correctly, “Your  _ sister _ ?”

“I know this is a lot to take in but it’s the honest to God truth. Why else would I have taken off after seeing her picture?” He explained.

Suddenly Carrie was glad she was sitting.

“So… you’re my uncle?”

He bit his lip shrugging, “Technically I guess, yeah.”

“This is really weird.”

Alex couldn’t help a chuckle, “You have no idea.”

Carrie blinked, “I never knew my mom had a brother. Why would she never talk about you?”

“There are a lot of things about this that don’t add up. Claire,  _ my  _ Claire, would never just abandon her kid. Do you have any idea what happened with your mom?”

Carrie tried to think back, “It was like 5 years ago so I don’t remember well. My mom and dad were fighting pretty much any time they were in the same room except when I was around, then they would fake being polite or someone would leave the room. Then one day my mom just moved out and that was that. She never called, never visited, nothing.”

Alex frowned, “That can’t be right, there has to be more to this story… Have you ever tried to contact your mom?”

Carrie shook her head, “I was like 11 at the time, I didn’t have a cellphone or anything. Besides, she wasn’t acting like she wanted to hear from me or anything.”

Alex tried to think, he was really having a hard time believing that his sister could act this way. If only there was somehow he could get the two of them to talk.

“How would you feel about finding her?” He finally asked. He knew it was a lot and that the chance that Carrie would say yes was slim but he had to try. It wasn’t like he could go and have a conversation with Claire on his own.

He could tell that she was struggling with the question. He hesitated for a moment before wrapping his arm around her shoulder. To his surprise, Carrie didn't pull away though he wondered if she could even feel him.

"You can say you don't want to…" he spoke gently knowing that this was a hard subject for both of them.

"It's not that I don't want to," Carrie finally said, tears threatening to spill at any moment. "I just… all I want is to have my mom back but if I track her down and find her and she doesn't want me?" Carrie shook her head "I don't think I could handle being rejected by her again."

Alex couldn't believe how hard her words hit him. They were talking about Claire and Carrie but at the same time it was dredging up memories of his own parents.

"I know what it's like to be rejected by your parents… mine all but disowned me for being gay," he admitted quietly. "I wouldn't wish that feeling on anyone."

Carrie gave an incredulous chuckle, "Maybe disowning children runs in the family."

Alex wished there was something he could say to ease her pain but there was nothing. Who knew what kind of person his sister had become since his death.

"Well… you have your dead uncle if that counts for anything?" He was trying to lighten the mood and he could feel the knot in his stomach ease off a bit as she laughed.

"I still can't believe that any of this is real," Carrie sighed. "I feel like I'm just going to wake up tomorrow and it'll all be a dream."

"Same," Alex admitted. "Carrie, if you ever do want to try and find your mom, I'll be there for you okay? You wouldn't have to do it alone."

"Thank you," she nodded. "I wish I could hug you."

"Same, this whole ghost thing is pretty inconvenient," he said giving her a soft smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this chapter is short but I just got really excited about Alex and Carrie finally talking that I wanted to post it! I'm hoping that I'll be able to continue with the next chapter soon! I've got a busy start to the new year but I'll try my best to keep writing <3 Thank you so much for all the support and love of this fic, you have no idea how much it means to me! All of your comments make my day and if I'm completely honest it's what fuels me to keep writing. Usually, I feel a lull after posting but with this fic, the comments have been so amazing that as soon as my inbox starts filling I have a renewed energy to keep writing! So thank you so much for that! I'm so happy for this show and this fandom, one of the best things to come out of 2020! Thank you so much for making this an amazing year! Love you all so much!


	19. Chapter 19

“So your sister lives alone and has a cat, your brother has three kids, and your parents separated,” Luke was repeating what Reggie had just filled him in on before he turned to Alex. “And you’re Carrie’s Uncle?”

“You all think it’s weird but you don’t even know the half of it! Bobby got it on with my sister! How the hell did that happen? When we died she was dating some guy at college!”

Luke was trying his best not to laugh but was failing miserably, “You know sometimes I’m glad I’m an only child.”

“You know, I thought finding out what my family was up to would make me feel better somehow but I don’t feel any different,” Reggie’s forehead crinkled as he thought.

“Finding out about my family  _ did not _ make me feel any better,” Alex muttered, “in fact, I think it made me feel worse.”

Luke wrapped his arm around Alex, “Hey man, it’s okay. Obviously, we don’t know the whole story because the Claire we all knew liked to tease Bobby but never once showed genuine interest. Something happened after we died. Carrie can’t tell you any more?”

Alex shook his head, “I don’t know. I guess I have only asked about why her mom left, not how her mom and dad got together. Maybe she knows something about that.”

“Maybe it has something to do with your unfinished business?” Reggie suggested.

Alex threw him a dirty look, “How can it be my unfinished business if it happened after I died.”

Reggie opened his mouth to respond but then stopped as he thought about it, “Oh, good point.”

“I thought we were over the whole unfinished business thing anyway. We’re gonna be  _ huge _ . That show at the Orpheum made a huge impact, Julie has already been getting calls about more gigs. Can we just celebrate that for a minute?”

Alex nodded, “Yeah, you’re right. I mean at least we still have each other and we still have music.”

“How is recording an album going to work with us being dead and all?” Reggie wondered aloud.

Luke just shrugged, “People seem to be able to take photos and videos of us when we’re playing on stage with Julie. I guess if we’re playing with her it works. She’ll just have to bring her ‘holograms’ to the studio with her.”

Reggie smiled sadly, “Krissy  would love this, or at least she would have 25 years ago. I wonder if she’d listen to our music now….”

“If we get famous enough, there won't be anyone who doesn’t know our music!” Luke exclaimed happily.

“Wait, so what happens when our families  _ do _ hear our music? I mean that YouTube video has us in it. Carrie recognized me from the sleeve on our Sunset Curve CD, I doubt our parents or siblings wouldn’t recognize us….” Alex could feel the knot in his stomach tighten again.

Reggie bit his lip and shrugged looking between his two friends, “I have no idea.”

Luke didn’t seem to be phased at all by the idea that they could be recognized, “We died 25 years ago, I’m sure they won’t think anything of it. We can cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“I’m crossing that bridge right now!” Alex’s voice came out more agitated than he had meant but he hated the fact that his friends did not seem to be grasping the fact that he was struggling to deal with the fact that Carrie was indeed his niece and that she had recognized him before he’d ever said anything to her.

“Sorry man,” Luke walked towards him, putting his hand on his shoulder. “Is there anything we can do?”

Alex pulled away from his hand, annoyed that it took him freaking out for his friends to understand just how bad the spiral was.

“I’m just going to go find Willie,” he said before disappearing.

\--

Carrie had thought a lot about her conversation with Alex. It was funny, when she had originally planned to meet with him she’d hope that it would answer some of her questions when in fact it had only created more.

She still couldn’t believe that Alex was related to her mom. Why hadn’t anyone mentioned it to her before? She’d met her grandmother and grandfather a few times and she tried to search her brain for any recollection of Alex, even just a family picture or something somewhere. To be fair, she hadn’t ever paid that much attention to her grandparent’s house and most of her interactions with them were either at her own home or out somewhere. Also, Alex had died years before she had ever been born so maybe it was sad memories to bring him up and it was easier not to talk about him than try to talk to a child about a family member they would never meet.

Then there was her dad, Alex had been his bandmate. She sighed, he was a lost cause since he shared little to nothing about his past with her. It wasn’t that long ago that she’d finally gotten him to talk about Sunset Curve. She just couldn’t figure out why everything was so secretive.

She got up off the couch, clicking off the TV with the remote since she wasn’t even watching it anyway and made her way upstairs. She paused outside her father’s room, watching him as he sat in silence meditating and contemplated interrupting him.

“Is that you Baby?” Her father asked without even opening his eyes.

She swallowed hard, “Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you.”

He blinked his eyes open softly and looked over at her, “It’s okay, I was finishing up anyway.”

He waved at her to enter his room and she walked in, taking a seat on his bed across from him.

“What’s on your mind?” 

Carrie wondered how to answer him. She could just plaster on a smile and talk about school or whatever or she could actually try to get him to open up again.

“I’ve been thinking about mom….”

She could see her father tense up at the mention of his ex, his face turning white.

“Oh?” Was all that he could manage.

She nodded, “I was just wondering if you had her number or something. I guess I just wanted to try to connect with her, there are some things a teenage girl can’t really talk to her dad about.”

Trevor blushed, “You have me there. But no, I haven't talked with your mother since the divorce. It’s a shame Julie’s mom passed so young, she was always looking out for you with stuff like that.”

Carrie just rolled her eyes, “If you haven’t noticed it’s not like Julie and I are even friends anymore so it wouldn’t help me now.”

“I know it might be embarrassing honey but you know you can always come to me for anything alright? I promise to be cool about it,” Trevor gave her a hesitant smile.

Carrie just sighed loudly, “Maybe I’ll just try to find her myself.”

“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” her father almost cut her off.

She gave him a look, “Why?”

It was almost as though he was scrambling to put together an excuse on the spot. 

“Well honey, it’s not like she’s tried to contact you at all over the years. She may not want to hear from you and I don’t want you to get hurt,” he explained.

It didn’t sit right with her, she knew he was hiding something from her again and that only strengthened her resolve to go and find her mother. If he wasn’t going to tell her what was going on then maybe her mother would.

“You’re right Daddy,” Carrie flashed him what she thought was a rather sweet smile. “How about we figure out dinner?”

Trevor relaxed, a smile coming back his lips, convinced that the topic had been dropped.

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I realized that I totally had been spelling Candi wrong on Carrie's posts so I changed her username. One day if I'm ambitious I'll go back and correct the past chats LOL
> 
> Once again, as always, I'm so grateful for the support you've all given me on this fic it has really just been overwhelming and it makes me so happy to know that so many people are enjoying my writing! You're all the best and I honestly would not have gotten this far with the story without all of your support! Love you guys!


	20. Chapter 20

It was nice to have a little break from the others. The sound of the ocean along with the chatter from the people on the boardwalk was soothing. Willie was having the time of his afterlife skating through the crowds of lifers and Alex enjoyed the fact that his boyfriend was trying to show off for him. 

Normally he wouldn't have been able to take his eyes off Willie but today his mind kept going over all the recent messy developments and also trying to figure out how Lule and Reggie didn't seem to realize how much of a problem being recognized would be.

Skating up Willie primped his board on the bench that Alex had parked himself on and he began to unbuckle his helmet. 

"What's eating ya, Hot Dog?"

Alex gave the other a look but didn't say anything as Willie knew full well he wasn't crazy about the nickname and giving him a reaction was exactly what he wanted.

"Where do I even begin?" Alex lamented.

Willie chuckled, "That bad huh?"

"No, it's not  _ that _ bad. I have you so there's something. I guess I just never realized death would be so complicated."

"More complicated than Carrie finding your old CD?"

Alex realized it had been a while since he and Willie had talked. So much had happened over the last few days he hadn't realized how out of the loop he was.  It was crazy just how much could change in such little time.

“About that…” Alex started before trailing off. He had no idea where to start.

Willie just smiled at him while taking his hand and lacing their fingers together, “Come on Hot Dog. Lay it on me.”

“So Reggie wanted to find his family, right? And I mean that’s all good and all, his brother and sister grew up to be some pretty awesome people as far as he can tell though, his parents eventually did get divorced. He doesn’t show it but I know he’s pretty upset about that. Anyway one time I was at Carrie’s and I saw this picture of her mom, except for the fact that the picture was also my sister…” Alex trailed off as he watched the expression on Willie’s face change.

“Wait, are you telling me you’re related to that girl?”

Alex nodded slowly, “Yeah, she’s my niece.”

“And does she know that?”

“Well…” Alex shrugged, “yeah she does. We’ve kind of talked about it.”

“You’re unlike any ghost I’ve ever met before.”

“Is… is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Alex bit his lip.

Willie just laughed, “I dunno, sure I guess it’s a good thing.”

His words didn’t really comfort Alex much though the kiss he gave him did help a little.

“So is that it? Is that all that’s bothering you or is there more?”

“More,” Alex replied. “Firstly, how on earth could my sister hook up with Bobby? And secondly, how could she abandon her child? My sister was my best friend, she took care of me and was amazing when I came out, especially when my parents were not amazing. It really bothers me that she walked out on Carrie…”

Willie sighed, “That’s some pretty serious stuff on your mind. See that’s why I never bothered looking up my family. Living is for the living and the dead should stay out of it, it’s not like we can change anything anyway.”

Alex thought for a moment, “You do have a point.”

“You know what you need?” Willie stood up with a grin plastered across his face, pulling Alex to his feet.

“What?” Alex couldn’t help the smile pulling at the corners of his lips, Willie’s was infectious.

“A proper date, we’ve never had one. It’s always just hanging out. So how about next time we go on a real date?”

Alex blushed. He didn’t have a lot of experience with dates, but the idea of something more than just watching Willie skate around did sound perfect.

“And what exactly are we gonna do on this date?”

“You leave that up to me,” Willie winked.

“You know, things have been going really well for the band. We’ve got lots more offers for live shows and such. We actually have one coming up soon, it’s a charity thing at a hospital across the city,” Alex boasted proudly.

“Someday I wanna hear you play,” Willie grinned as they started to walk down the boardwalk hand in hand. Willie was holding his board in his free hand while Alex carried his helmet in his.

“You have heard us play,” Alex rolled his eyes.

“The Hollywood Ghost Club doesn’t count, especially since you were there under the coercion of Caleb. You weren’t even playing your own music. I want to actually hear what you play,” Willie squeezed his hand.

“You could always come to the hospital show and see us,” Alex suggested hopefully.

Willie shook his head, “I don’t do hospitals. I don’t know, after dying in one I kind of just don’t have the heart to go to one.”

“Alright, well the next one then,” Alex couldn’t help himself from pouting just a little.

“It’s a promise,” Willie nodded, leaning in for a kiss.

\--

“So where should we start? There is this thing called the internet and you can  _ google _ ,” Alex made a face as he said the word as though he was trying to recall something unfamiliar, “maybe we should start there?”

Carrie laughed, “I’m already ahead of you. I did google her name and I came up with this…”

She unlocked her iPad and clicked around a little bit pulling up a website for a medical clinic and their staff directory and pointing at an administrative assistant.

“Claire Mercer,” Carrie said matter of factly, “and she looks like my mom. I just need a second opinion.”

Alex blinked, “Well that was fast…” 

Studying the picture he had to agree. She definitely looked older but there was no mistaking that it was his sister.

“So now what should we do?” Carrie asked nervously. 

Of course, she wanted to see her mom again, she wanted to find out why she left. But her dad’s words were in her head as well as her own self-doubt. Sure maybe she seemed confident and badass on the outside but it was mostly compensating for how lost and lonely she felt inside. She hadn’t realized how easy it would be to find her mom, it made her wonder why she’d never done it before.

“I guess the next step would be to contact her, don’t you think?” He asked quietly.

They stared at each other for a moment, each of them having their own worries and doubts about everything. Alex ached, he wished that he was able to hug Carrie or at least hold her hand and not even just for her, he needed some support too. 

Carrie nodded, “Problem is, there is no personal information here…”

Alex bit his lip as he thought, “You could always try calling her at work?”

They stared at each other for a moment before Carrie reached for her phone. Looking at the website she dialled each number carefully. Alex felt sick as the phone began to ring.  As much as he wanted to know about Claire he also didn’t.

There was a woman on the other end of the phone that answered and politely offered to transfer their call when Carrie asked for her mother. They exchanged a look, this was it.

_ “Hello, Claire Mercer speaking. How may I help you?” _

Carrie froze and she looked up at Alex in terror.

_ “Hello?” _

“Answer her,” Alex hissed as he gestured to the phone that was sitting between them.

“Hi, um, my name is Carrie…. Carrie Wilson…”

Her voice trailed off and there was silence as they waited for the woman on the other end to react.

_ "Carrie? Carrie is that you? How on earth did you find me?” _

There was no denying it, the voice on the other end of the phone definitely sounded like his sister.

“I googled you,” Carrie replied. “I wanted to talk to you. I know now probably isn’t a good time but maybe you could give me your number and I could call you later?”

There was another hesitation before Claire spoke again.

_ “Does your father know you’re calling me?” _

Carrie frowned, “No, he doesn’t. I’m doing this on my own.”

_ “Carrie, this isn’t a good idea. You shouldn’t have called me.” _ Claire’s voice was strained before the line went dead.

Both were stunned. That hadn’t gone at all like Alex had expected. He thought maybe there would be some touching words or reunion, maybe a little joyous crying, but not Claire hanging up on her daughter with barely a word. 

“Carrie, I’m-” Alex started but Carrie cut him off.

“Save it, it’s fine. I should have known she wouldn’t want to talk to me,” Carrie swallowed hard.

Alex knew that she was trying to be strong but he couldn’t help but notice the way her lower lip was trembling until she bit down on it and the way she was blinking back tears.

“Claire must have a reason…” he tried again but Carrie didn’t want to be consoled.

“The reason is she doesn’t want me, she’s made that clear. Now if you don’t mind, I have homework to do,” Carrie stood up and moved across the room to grab her book bag.

She was icing him out but he didn’t really blame her. He waited for a moment to see if she would change her mind and want to talk but the moment she put her headphones on to block him out he knew he wasn’t wanted there any longer.

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait for the update. I usually try to update weekly but it's been a crazy start to the year and been feeling a bit of writer's block. Thank you so much to everyone who continues to read and enjoy this fic! Hopefully, it won't be so long until the next update but I make no promises! Once again thank you so so much for all of your wonderful comments, they really mean the world to me!


End file.
